scotto
Community Member
Hey all, just doing the due diligence for joining the forum. It's been about 15 (ish) years since I had a reef tank back in America, and now back into the hobby down under.
My word, how so much has changed. I remember having a noisy Supreme mag-drive pump in a wet dry filter (gasp!), growing Caulerpa, old school hang on the back overflow (how many scares that caused), and a temperamental Tunze ATO unit. We had metal halides and T5s that were fabulous, but the power draw and heat generation was horrendous. I also remember having a Red Sea skimmer at the time that sounded like a buzz saw, and had a pretty unattractive design. It worked, sort of. There were no app based setups, no LEDs, very few DC pumps, just noisy skimmers and equipment.
Water chemistry products were mainly Seachem and Kent Marine from what I remember. The cycling products back then were also not great, nor the advice using them. I remember taking algal blooms under the microscope and ID'ing horrid Dinos. Water chemistry testing was also just difficult. Nothing like the Hanna checkers or Red Sea pro test kits today.
What a time. Nonetheless, you could still have a beautiful tank, just with a bit more time and patience I think.
And here we are now. I purchased a Red Sea Reefer as the local shops didn't have many options. Quite happy with the build quality with several adjustments (I'll put in the build thread).
My word, how so much has changed. I remember having a noisy Supreme mag-drive pump in a wet dry filter (gasp!), growing Caulerpa, old school hang on the back overflow (how many scares that caused), and a temperamental Tunze ATO unit. We had metal halides and T5s that were fabulous, but the power draw and heat generation was horrendous. I also remember having a Red Sea skimmer at the time that sounded like a buzz saw, and had a pretty unattractive design. It worked, sort of. There were no app based setups, no LEDs, very few DC pumps, just noisy skimmers and equipment.
Water chemistry products were mainly Seachem and Kent Marine from what I remember. The cycling products back then were also not great, nor the advice using them. I remember taking algal blooms under the microscope and ID'ing horrid Dinos. Water chemistry testing was also just difficult. Nothing like the Hanna checkers or Red Sea pro test kits today.
What a time. Nonetheless, you could still have a beautiful tank, just with a bit more time and patience I think.
And here we are now. I purchased a Red Sea Reefer as the local shops didn't have many options. Quite happy with the build quality with several adjustments (I'll put in the build thread).
